The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-09-30
MY FATHER y T..

even now believe my father was just as
remarkable father as he seemed to me
when a little girl. OF course, most child
rem love their father dearly. I not only
loved my father better than any one else
on earth, but my childish love and pride
were fed and satisfied with his tender care
and constant attention. Ny young heart
responded to this devotion from my father
with much the same feeling that I have
enjoyed or missed in other relations of life
since.
knew when the Sunday-school teacher
gave a Christmas party, that my father
would take our children in the sleigh, and
that when he had taken one load, compos-
ed of our little cousins and ourselves, then
| could stay in the sleigh and drive round
with him and get a few children who had
no fathers. No grown person ever felt a
keener sense of pride in any friend than l
in my father, as | looked at the typical
New England widowed mother in that sad
black dress, and appreciated the tear of
gratitude in her eye and voice when she
thanked my father for so kindly remem-
bering her little fatherless ones. II it
rained, and we had gone to school in the
morning without preparation for it, we
knew that our father would call for us. |
secretly reioiced to see the rain or snow.
for | knew it would bring the one to
school that the teacher was always glad to
see, for my father could notice the pleas
ant things about the school, and say a
CHEEKY word for the children and a com
plimentary one for the teachers success.
Wasn't | proud of my father as he lifted
me in his arms, and carried me through
the streets, because he had forgotten those
funny little rnbbers. The honest, simple
pride a child may experience in the arms
of a noble father, no golden chariot or
princely retinue in after life can supply.
Never, though he died before | was quite
ten years old, | saw my father too tired for
a frolic with us. He never replied when
we asked him if we could go to ride with
him, that it was too mnch trouble to get
us ready, or that he was in a hurry and
could not wait. He was one OF the fathers
that could wait to make glad the little
hearts of his children, or else we were al
ways dressed well enough to go with him,
for he thought three or four little people
tucked into the ol~d-fashioned chaise w1uld
not be particularly noticed if we did not
appear to have come direct from a perfect
~ equipped nursery or laundry. Joyful,
happy faces of childhood. though 4 button
was off the boot, and the apron a trile
soiled, were far more desired by him than
that all the ruffies should be quite fresh
aud hang just right, if this ov~er-nicety in
the children's attire were accompanied by
pale, dissatisfied faces. My father could
tell such delightful stories about his boy
hood, which never lost their zest to us; and
though the girls and boys fun in those
days was observed after a little different
fashion, yet it was in the nature of the
children then very much the same in sub
stance and practice, that it was in my
childhood and yours.
If we try to find for ourselves, and
others, each day. all the innocent enjoy
ment possible, we hall do our duty, and
obtain and enjoy the blessings God gives
us. To be cheerful and happy, is our duty
and privilege as much as to seek instInc-
ton and education in the ways to be useful.
AUNT Bess.